Hong Kong-headquartered diamond and gemstone laboratory EGL Asia launched a new service - of offering reports or certificates for gem quality lab grown diamonds. EGL Asia's CEO, Joseph Kuzi, said that interest in and demand for these stones in the Asian market is rising, creating the need for proper identification reports for lab grown stones that are now regularly sold in Asia's jewellery retail and consumer markets.

"EGL Asia issues two types of reports for lab grown diamonds: a 'Lab Grown Diamond Certificate" and a 'Lab Grown Diamond Mini Certificate." Kuzi said. The new identification reports record a stone's 4C's, measurements and proportions, finish, symmetry, cut grade and fluorescence. "Naturally, the reports for lab grown stones look distinctively different from EGL's reports for natural diamonds. We have opted for a yellow banner at the top, a colour that has already become the international standard for these types of reports," Kuzi added.

One of the other motivators to launch this new service is the need to supply jewellery retailers and consumers with full and unambiguous information on the stones being bought and sold. "Lab grown diamonds are fully legitimate gemstones that are slowly but surely conquering space in retailers' showcases. With these certs, we are not only responding to market demand, but also helping to assure that consumer confidence in jewellery, especially in the Asian luxury product market, which, while already huge, is still young and needs all the help it can get in consumer confidence building in the diamond, gem and jewellery market segment," EGL Asia's CEO stated.

Kuzi noted that EGL Asia is already issuing these certificates for a - for now unnamed - supplier of lab grown diamonds. Chow Tai Fook, the world's largest jewellery retailer, is another user of EGL Asia's lab services for some time, which help it to ensure that all small diamonds it uses are natural diamonds.